Get access to this article and to all of thebmj.com for 14 daysSign up today for a 14 day free trial

About 10 000 French general practitioners have agreed to participate in a campaign to encourage their patients to donate organs after their death. Posters are being placed in waiting rooms, stating, “Your doctor has volunteered for organ donation. Ask him why.”

The doctors have also received a brochure giving practical, legal, and statistical information to help patients understand the importance of organ donation, and a volunteer donor card that will be given to all adult patients aged under 55 who agree to donate their organs after death.

The campaign has been prompted by an unprecedented shortage of organs resulting from an increase in the number of families that …